A.Word.A.Day --apopemptic

A.Word.A.Day

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Nov 7, 2011

This week's theme
Odds and ends

This week's words
apopemptic
forficate
addlepated
catawampus
scrobiculate

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

It's that time of the year again, the time when we feature odds and ends, one-of-a-kind words. Words that are unusual, picturesque, whimsical, esoteric, or intriguing. And like all the creatures in this world, these words serve a purpose (as shown by the accompanying citations).

They make our verbal universe richer and more diverse. So here they are. We've coaxed them out of the dictionary -- it's not often that one finds them in the open -- and we hope you'll welcome them in your diction.

apopemptic

PRONUNCIATION:

(ap-uh-PEMP-tik)

MEANING:

adjective: Relating to departing or leave-taking; valedictory.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek apopempein (to send off, to dismiss), from apo- (away) + pempein (to send). Earliest documented use: 1753.

USAGE:

"It had not been billed as a farewell dinner, and Mr. Kemp hardly was there to deliver an apopemptic address."
William F. Buckley; On Saying Goodbye to Jack Kemp; The Dallas Morning News (Texas); Dec 8, 1988.

See more usage examples of apopemptic in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I did try very hard to tell the whole truth without violating my literary instincts. One can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a window pane. -George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

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